As the first client to utilize Fair Isaac's Falcon™ Fraud Manager and Fraud Predictor with Merchant Profiles, Visa EU will provide Issuing Members of any size a simple, cost-effective method to substantially mitigate fraud losses.

The combination of Fair Isaac's next generation technology and Visa's unique view of data offers advanced fraud management capabilities that will help protect more than 208 million payment Visa cardholders from card fraud.

Fighting cross-border fraud

Payment card fraud in Europe has risen sharply. According to the Lafferty 2003 Card Fraud Report, the European Commission estimated that card fraud in the European Union reached £600 million ($943 million) in 2000.

In particular, there has been a significant increase in cross-border fraud, which occurs when fraudulent transactions are executed through a merchant outside the payment card issuer's home market. Visa's worldwide view of merchant data makes them well placed to capture this type of fraud.

The solution's ability to incorporate the predictive power of merchant data greatly increases its detection power. A custom model based on Visa EU data will provide Issuing Members with maximum fraud protection in the cross-border environment.

Advanced patented profiling technology

The Visa EU solution utilizes Falcon Fraud Manager's patented neural network technology and cardholder account information, leveraging Fraud Predictor's merchant-specific data and patented profiling technology to better identify multiple types of payment card fraud. The solution will be deployed with the newly released Falcon Fraud Manager Version 5 technology architecture, which now provides an easy-to-use, thin-client graphical user interface (GUI) for more efficient case management.

Falcon Fraud Manager is currently used by more than 30 financial services institutions in Europe. It protects more than 450 million payment card accounts worldwide — approximately 65% of all credit card transactions — and collectively saves financial institutions millions of dollars daily.

Fraud Predictor with Merchant Profiles is a new solution that combines the technology and fraud capabilities of Falcon Fraud Manager and merchant profile data for even sharper fraud detection.

"With the volume of card fraud on the rise, it is vital for Visa EU to respond quickly and provide Member banks with the technology capabilities they need to effectively combat fraud and cut losses, regardless of their card portfolio size," says Robert Littas, senior vice president of risk management for Visa EU. "As one of the leading card associations in Europe, we have chosen Fair Isaac, the number one provider of fraud detection technology, because of their proven success in protecting issuers and payment card users worldwide."

"We look forward to working with Visa EU to provide the highest-level fraud protection possible to the European Visa Issuers, and to further increase global industry awareness of the importance and benefits of implementing advanced fraud management capabilities," says Tim Grace, vice president of business management in Fair Isaac's Strategy Machines — Fraud Analytics business unit.

For more information, contact your Fair Isaac representative or email info@fairisaac.com.